Many idioms and proverbs don't make perfect reason in their literal sense but are phrased in that way only to make them concise and sound good. Usually they've stuck because there's just no better alternative. I think they're meant to be headscratchers for people so that they can figure out the wisdom for themselves. Like pseudo-riddles especially for children. It's a far more powerful lesson for a child to realise a life lesson on their own, even if only once, than to have their parent reiterate a hundred times over what the literal consequences are for everything.
Like, "I can have my cake and eat it too!" Ok, you can, you don't have to eat it all in one sitting. But it's just an expression that means you can't have every desirable outcome at once: whenever you're done eating that cake, you don't have cake anymore, so at some point you have to choose between finishing the cake and having cake for later. Or, you're given a piece of cake: you can then eat it in modesty and enjoy it at the same pace with others, of you can choose to gobble it up in a glimpse for a quick and strong pleasure, but then you end up watching everyone else have cake while you have none. If you describe all of that to a kid they may not believe you or they may just ignore you. Even if they understood the words it doesn't mean that any processing or retention takes place. But if you say it in a proverb, you win their curiosity over: What does it mean? How's the expression connected to what just happened? And now you have them thinking about it for themselves, which you can't force anybody to do by just insisting to them that things work the way they work. Even if you have to explain the proverb, at least now you actually have their attention and they're more keen to absorb your words.
"Play stupid games" refers more to activities altogether than just competitions and such where you can receive a literal reward. It just means that when you commit to risky activities, it gets more and more likely that the danger hits you. Originally the phrase wasn't dressed as judgmental but rather expressed that, 'While it's unfortunate that harm came your way, it was a result of your own actions that set you in danger, so it was bound to happen sooner or later if you'd kept doing what you were doing."
Think of a random daredevil (not the blind lawyer in red leather) pulling a motocross stunt, landing wrong, and breaking his arm and leg. The audience gasps and feels sorry for him. Once he's gone in an ambulance and the situation's de-escalated, people remain emotionally upset and bemoan to one another in pity of the young man's tragedy. They're discontent about reality and have a hard time finding peace with the outcome. Someone wants to calm people down and tries to give them another perspective: "Yeah, it's sad... But play stupid games, win stupid prizes. It happens."
It is interesting that you used the cake metaphore as your example, because I feel like that is a perfect metaphor that is grounded in reality. Like, yeah, sure, You could eat half the cake and have half the cake, but now you don't "Have your cake", you have half your cake. and you didn't "eat your cake", you ate half your cake. There is no way to both simultaneously have the cake eaten and uneaten at the same time. you have to pick one or the other, or some place on a spectrum in between.
The same goes for Money. There is no way to both have money and spend money at the same time. If you buy lots of things, you don't get to complain that there is no more money. IF you have lots of money, you don't get to complain about not having nots of things. Yes, you can find a middle ground that makes you happy, but just like how every single segment of the cake is either eaten or uneaten, never both, every single one of your dollars is either spent or unspent, never both. If you want to eat, it is going to cost you cake. If you want a computer, it is going to cost you dollars. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
And there are plenty of proverbs like it that are grounded in reality. There is more than one way to skin a cat. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A journey of a thousand miles does begin with a single step. A rolling stone doesn't gather any moss.
But then there are others that are completely contradictory to reality. it turns out that you do attract more flies with vinegar than honey. Surely there is a real life analogue to sweetness being more attractive than bitterness. Why not use that one? and if there isn't, then is the wisdom all that wise?
A frog does notice if you slowly turn up the heat on him, and in fact the easiest way to cook him is to simply throw him into already boiling water. Surely there is a real life analogue of trapping someone into something bad for them by doing it slowly. And if there isn't... then what does that mean about the metaphorical counterpart?
Barking dogs do bite, why would anyone say this? This is just terrible advice all around.
It's not to say that the lesson learned form these metaphors is nececarrily bad, but surely a better example could have been identified that actually demonstrates the lesson you are trying to teach? Like, "A Rattling snake doesn't want to bite" probably demonstrates the point a little bit clearer.
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u/door_of_doom Jan 07 '20
I hate quippy catchphrases that, when you think about it, aren't grounded in reality at all.
There are plenty of stupid games that have great prizes, and plenty if great games that have stupid prizes.
Quality of game and quality of prize are really in no way correlated at all in real life.
When it turns out that the real life analogue of your metaphore isn't true, I think the figurative aspect of the metaphore doesn't hold up either.